MORPHED BY DOCTOR MABUSE

MORPHED

She whinnied – after all, what else could she do?

It was very frustrating, she thought, as she trotted down towards the lower end of the field. The people were walking along the path on the other side of the fence. There were two men and a woman; and, to judge by their clothes, they were from an interplanetary agricultural inspection team. If only she could talk to them!

She trotted along her side of the fence, whinnied a few times, and looked at them longingly.

"Oh, look at her," cried the woman. "Isn't she beautiful!"

Carol stopped, whinnied again, and stared, with her beautiful brown mare's eyes, straight at the woman. Of course, she was beautiful! A dark chestnut mare of classic proportions and brilliant genetic pedigree! What could she be but beautiful?

The woman came to the fence and scratched Carol's nose. It was very pleasant, but infuriating.

"Aren't you a darling," said the woman. "What's your name?"

Carol whinnied out of exasperation and by way of an answer. She nuzzled the woman's outstretched hand. The woman dug in her pockets, pulled out a lump of sugar, hid it in her fist, and said, "Guess what I have here!"

Carol tilted her head slightly, and let out a quizzical low whinny. She felt like a ninny. People ask such stupid questions, play such stupid games, they think animals are babies. They even think babies are babies! Human beings underestimate everything and everybody! But, in her present form, Carol certainly liked lumps of sugar, so she might as well play along with this well-meaning lady. Didn't have many choices, did she? The difficulty with being a horse is that you really can't communicate very complex ideas or feelings, not of the human variety, that is, and not to humans at least. Hoofs are not adept at writing or sign-language, four legs allow you to gallop, trot, canter, and even frolic, all of which is delightful, and kick and romp, but don't make it easy to point or gesticulate, and the bone structure of a horse's face, however aesthetically satisfying, does not lend itself to mime.

"That's a darling," said the woman, as she opened her hand. Carol used her very sensitive, velvet-soft, and elaborate mouth-muscles to pick up the sugar cube, plucking it delicately off the woman's soft, extended palm. The woman stood back, Carol neighed, whinnied, and did a little dance of pleasure to express her gratitude.

The woman clapped, left Carol, and turned to her companions; and the humans started on their way down the path. Carol heard the woman say, "What a darling. I'd love to take her home."

Carol watched them go. One of the men was black, with close-cut curly hair, horn-rimmed glasses, and a serious, handsome, scholarly face. He was wearing neat designer jeans and an open blue shirt. The other man was a straw-blond Nordic type, with freckles and a wide, naive grin; he wore a wide-brimmed straw hat and a light, pale blue finely cut safari suit. The woman was a pretty blonde, maybe about 27, with a straight aristocratic nose, full lips, a high forehead, dark arched eyebrows, and wide-set big blue eyes. Hers was a mock-safari outfit in black silk, and she wasn't wearing a hat. She looks very much like I used to look, thought Carol, with a pang of nostalgia. The way I used to look before Doctor Mabuse ... well, before ...

At a turning in the path, the woman stopped, turned around, and waved.

Carol whinnied, swayed her head, and whipped her tail back and forth.

The woman waved again.

Then they were gone, disappearing out of sight around a clump of jungle fern and high reeds. Soon, Carol knew, they would board their space vehicle, and fly off. They had not found the body and had apparently seen nothing amiss or worrisome; so there was no reason for them to linger. It might be decades before any humans re-appeared here. Doctor Mabuse's ranch was isolated, hundreds of miles from the nearest other human habitation on a lush but sparsely populated planet. The whole universe was underpopulated. Humans hardly bred anymore, and after the discovery of faster-than-light or supra-light travel, there was an abundance of territory to be colonized. It was thus that eccentrics like Doctor Mabuse could survive. And he certainly was an eccentric – that was for sure!